American hostages being held in gaza. That the president or any other leaders would refer to people that are moving through our Justice System as hostages. Its just unacceptable. I was there on january 6th. I have no doubt in my mind, margaret, that some people were caught up in the moment and entered the capitol, and theyre entitled to Due Process Of Law for any nonviolent activities that day. But the assaults on Police Officers, ultimately an environment that claimed lives, is something that i think was tragic that day. Ill never diminish it. Mike pence once again taking a stand against his former boss. He also refused to endorse trump for president. Those comments from donald trump came during a stump speech for a Senate Candidate in ohio. Trump was more focused on his personal grievances, giving more incendiary remarks. Meanwhile, the former president has so far refused to condemn Vladimir Putin for the death of Alexei Navalny. But for the first time publicly, putin addressed the death of his chief rival. Also ahead, well show you the israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahus response to Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer after the highest ranking jewish elected official in the u. S. Called for new elections in israel. Were looking at news here and Around The World. Donald trump, again, the republican frontrunner who basically clinched the nomination, addressing one of the first things hell do in office, is free the and i say this in quotes hostages. Its beyond twisted for him to use that word. Not surprised but as disturbed as well ever be. What if you were an American Family with hostages still being held sick. In tunnels underneath gaza, people who actually are hostages who were doing nothing but being in their home or at a musical festival, minding their own business, when Hamas Terrorists came and seized them and beat them, raped them, abused them, took them underground. Holding someone. Donald trump comparing those people in name to others that drove from across the country, came to the capitol, used bear spray on Police Officers, Beat The Hell out of cops, Beat The Hell out of other people who got in their way, wanted to hang mike pence, were looking for nancy pelosi, destroyed a lot of offices, defecated in the United States capitol. Again, jammed cops heads in doors and tried to hurt as many people as they could. Jonathan lemire, you know, donald trump, i remember the day after donald trump and members of his family getting in trouble for calling these rioters patriots. They packed off. Some of them backed off. Donald trump wading straight in, saying these people were patriots and that, you know, others saying this wasnt a bloodbath. I would suggest that you talk to the wives, sons, and daughters of those Police Officers who lost their lives as a result of january 6th, and they will tell you that their loved ones lost their lives as a result of january 6th. Donald trump continues to praise these people. He says, he says, Everybody Knows theyre patriots. No, everybody doesnt, in fact. You have to be twisted and demented in your head if you can look at can rioting, people beating the Hell Out Of Cops, with Police Officers with American Flags, trying to kill them, and call them hostages after they went through the court system. That is a sickness and a twistedness, and the continued you have people continuing to try to apologize for this behavior. Starting with donald trump. Trying to minimize what happened on january 6th. For those who say, why do you talk about donald trump . We talk about donald trump because, yes, democracy is on the line. When donald trump says this is normal political behavior, the rnc said it was normal political behavior, donald trump says it. He says those people abusing Police Officers are patriots. Those that got sent to jail for trying to overrun the u. S. Capitol and for beating the Hell Out Of Cops are hostages, nothing there is nothing normal about this. For those weekkneed wimps that say we should never mention Donald Trumps name and just turn our faces from this and talk about something else, i would suggest there are germans who tried that with hitler. Didnt turn out well. Look at this footage. Look at this footage. These are rioters with flagpoles, hockey sticks, spears. We saw a cop being crushed in a door. Being tasered with their own weapons, assaulted with their own guns. Donald trump calls these people patriots. This is a bloodbath. There was debate about trumps use of the word bloodbath at the ohio rally, and well get to that. Lets note how he started the rally in ohio. They played the january 6th convict choir, their version of the National Anthem. These convicts, these rioters. Donald trump, first of all, said they were hostages, and said that on day one, were he to be elected mind you, he also said on day one hed be a dictator. Hes also saying now on day one, he would try to free these hostages. More than that, donald trump was a former Commander In Chief of this nation. He saluted. He held up his hand and saluted at his temple this version of the National Anthem. The convict choirs version of the National Anthem. That image, even as much as any of his rhetoric, shows you what he wants to bring to this nation again were he to take office. Lets look at that moment again, jonathan. People are so numbed by donald trump right now. We have ed luce were going to be bringing in in a little bit. Ed did what i think a lot of us should do, what a lot of journalists should do. That is, instead of trying to figure out the totality of the chaos, ed said, let me tell you what happened over the past five days. Focus on that, understand that if any candidate from any other time had done one of these multitude of things he did over five days, theyd forever be eliminated from american political discussion. That doesnt happen here. Thats a real problem. Including, again, pledging allegiance to a convict choirs version of the National Anthem. Take a look. Announcer Ladies And Gentlemen, please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated january 6th hostages. O say can you see by the dawns early light yeah. My gosh. Again, these people, i guess its a cult, i dont know, maybe theyre brainwashed into it, but, im sorry, no apologies. No apologies. There are a lot of people, oh, i lived my entire life out of manhattan and drive to pennsylvania to try to understand better. No, you dont have to drive from the Upper East Side to scranton to figure out these are people that want an autocrat. These are people who dont like American DemocracyThe Way It Is. They understand they lose a fair fight. They want to accept Election Results when they win, and they want to start a revolution when they lose. Theyre still embracing it here. It is sick, mika. It is sick. I swear to god, the press has got to wake up. Lets try to understand who these people are. Its pretty obvious. They have the video. They see the cops getting the hell beaten out of them. Theyre calling these people hostages. Theyre lying day in and day out about what happened on january 6th. Theyre saying, oh, nobody tried to hurt mike pence. Nobody tried to hurt nancy pelosi. Yet, you talk to the security detail. They were calling home to say goodbye to their loved ones because they thought they were going to be caught by donald Trump Supporters and killed. Trying to understand this, seriously, is like trying to understand a poisonous snake about to bite you. Its American Democracy thats at risk over the next six months. I swear to god, the fact this race is even close speaks volumes about what donald trump has done to this country. With us today, bbc special correspondent katty kay. And as joe mentioned, the Financial Times ed luce is with us. Also with us, former Supreme Allied Commander of nato, Navy Admiral James stavridis. Chief International Analyst for nbc news. Good to have you all this morning. Well get to the ohio rally in a second. Admiral, as a man who dedicated your entire life, also taken young men and young women across the world, protecting and defending america, the constitution, our national interest, your thoughts on these opening moments of this rally, opening moments of donald trump talking about these people who use the American Flag, that brave men and women like you have taken into battle the last 30, 40 years, that American Flag that was used to bludgeon cops, im curious your thoughts on what youve heard. Joe, i spent a fair amount of time in uniform trying to rescue hostages. Particularly when i was commander of the u. S. Southern command. We had hostages being held by terrorists in columbia. In afghanistan, we had handfuls of hostages who were held. Those truly are hostages. Point being, i know what a hostage is. That prison choir is not hostages. I know what a patriot is. A patriot swears to defend the constitution of the United States. Thats the oath every volunteer takes. Its not an oath to the Commander In Chief. Its an oath to the constitution. Those are patriots. Yeah, i know hostages. Not a prison choir. I know patriots. I served alongside millions of them. Ill close with this. The correct term for the prison choir, convicted felons. Bottom line. Following the saluting of the january 6th choir, the next hour and a half, trump spoke little of the republican candidate he was there in support of. Instead, he listed a long list of grievances and painted a bleak picture of americas future, including this warning that came when he was discussing chinesemade cars being imported to the u. S. From mexico. Were going to put a 100 tariff on every single car that comes across the line. Youre not going to be able to sell those cars. If i get elected. If i dont get elected, itll be a bloodbath for the whole thatll be the least of it. Itll be a bloodbath for the country. Thatll be the least of it. Shortly after the speech, the Trump Campaign tried to clean up those comments. Insisting in a statement the former president was talking about a bloodbath for the auto workers and Auto Industry. And before everyone is triggered and shocked, because this is a shock opera we have to, unfortunately, endure because were constantly shocked by what he says. But dont let that shock, dont let that trauma let you forget what youre hearing. Believe him. Jonathan lemire, back to you because youre reporting on this. You know, it was a distinction without a difference. Talking about the Auto Industry. Then itll be a bloodbath. Maybe you can connect that to the Auto Industry. Maybe you can, okay. Again, ive never really heard people discuss Macro Economics in terms of bloodbaths. But maybe so, for arguments sake. Then he says, and thats going to be the least of it. If you think theres going to be a bloodbath in the Auto Industry, even if you take that argument at face value, which, again, given the tone of the rest of the speech, bloodbath, im not sure hes talking about the niceties of international trade. Lets take that argument as is. Then he goes on and says, thats going to be the least of it. Repeats it, its going to be the least of it. Obviously, hes talking about a bloodbath for america. Its laid out in the terms of it. These idiots on twitter, these idiots on cable news, Idiots On Sunday Show going, he was only talking about the industry, and this is one more, thats bullshit. Ill say that at 6 15 a. M. It was bullshit. He knew what he was doing. Were not stupid. Americans arent stupid. He was talking about a bloodbath. Sometimes a bloodbath means a bloodbath. When he finishes by saying, and thats just going to be the least of it, seriously . These people may be stupid. Were not. No. It is clear what he meant. One of trumps rhetorical gifts, if you will, is he speaks just vaguely enough that people can read into different meanings. He allows a little wiggle room and a little out every time. We saw this in the Bloodbath Comments, which became a firestorm. Rightly, it was the headline out of the rally in ohio. It was reported all over the place. Immediately, we showed the statement already, the Trump Campaign within minutes put something out. They knew he screwed up. They recognized. They have some professionals on their team, and they realized it was a problem and tried to clarify it with that comment. What happened then, there was a Snowball Effect on cable news and particularly social media, voices in the rightwing, including prominent voices, really pushing back. Claiming the media was taking it out of context. Claiming they were biased against trump, et cetera. Yes, his comments about bloodbath came shortly after talking about the automobile industry. Again, thatll be the least of it. Thats the tell. Also, its that violent language that was peppered throughout his speech, a speech that, again, mind you, began with the former Commander In Chief saluting the version of the National Anthem being performed by January 6th Convicts. Exactly. That, ed luce, if you think you shouldnt take this seriously, one should believe him, at this point, the violence of january 6th is something that he talks about in a wistful way. He wants to help these people, these people who committed crimes. We look at Global ThreatsAround The World. It seems that the threat of violence within, im reading more about people concerned about violence in the u. S. Promulgated by donald trump. When he does that, you can see he is serious about it. I dont need much context to understand what he is saying. I know people have been going over and over his words. It is very clear what the use of the word bloodbath is. That the subclause, by the way, if i dont get elected, what it means. Joe said, Auto Analysts dont use terms like bloodbath when it comes to upturns and downturns in the Auto Industry. It is clear what he is saying. The context eludes people like elon musk who thinks this was a auto commentary. It was plain to anybody listening to this. You only need to listen once, and you dont need a Language Expert. Hes not only saying ill pardon the hostages, as he calls them, those put away for january 6th, but he is signaling future such acts have a green light from him. This is not just a commentary on the past, the January 6th Convicts, this is an enabling statement about people who will help this upcoming election. The Bloodbath Comment is unequivocal. There is no need to pass this. Ed, youre right. And go ahead, joe. Sorry, katty. Go ahead. Yeah, i mean, he also puts this, trump, in the context that this will happen to the country more broadly. I went back this weekend, its worth in this moment, i think, looking at the work of Rachel Kleinfeld who has written about what happens when democracies descend into violence and abandon the rule of law. Two things need to happen. One, the normalization of Political Violence, which we hear from donald trump again and again and his supporters. And the dehumanization of his opponents and people he sees as others. We heard that again over the course of the weekend, where he called some immigrants coming into the country not even human. Those, according to kleinfeld, are the two conditions you need for democracies to lose their democracy and become countries that are prone to political vie violence. It is the pattern youre seeing here. It is what we have seen through january 6th. The Bloodbath Comment doesnt come in a vacuum. It comes in the context of those january 6th images. You only need to replay those again and again to see the kind of political amnesia that has set in in america the last two years. All the polls showing us right after january 6th, a majority of republicans, even Trump Supporters, thought that what happened was a disgrace. Yet, over the course of two years, people have forgotten. Polls show a majority of maga supporters think it is okay, what happened january 6th. The ultimate conclusion of that is donald trump getting up and saluting the people who have been convicted of violence on that day. Convicte